Investigated mathematics practices of 25 elementary and middle school teachers in the context of national and state efforts to reform mathematics education. Identified distinctly different patterns of practice in response to the reforms and dimensions of practice that appear more responsive to reforms than others. Considers issues for policy…

Examines four years of a partnership between a middle school and a university, focusing on how the partners have used a vision of equitable education as an organizing concept for transforming existing collaborative relationships into a professional-development school framework. Combines viewpoints of a teacher, an administrator, and a university…

Examines how teachers use computerized comment menus on report cards and what teachers and parents think of the process, An analysis of report cards for 475 Wisconsin middle-school students shows teachers used comments most of the time. Only 52% of students received two comments. Most comments were positive. Parents and teachers found the practice…

Investigates teachers' impressions of stereotypes of scientists and science. Uses the Draw a Scientist Test (DAST) for nonverbal assessment and makes recommendations for strategies to build more realistic and positive images. (Contains 12 references.) (YDS)

Describes how a teacher's stance of wonder, curiosity, and exploration during use of hypothetical inquiry situations served as a way for the teacher to address goals for students to be more vocal members of the learning community, encourage critical and creative thinking students, and provide them with meaningful context-rich opportunities for…

Using qualitative information (faculty meeting transcripts) and a survey, researchers showed that seven statements pertaining to parent-teacher communication at a large rural middle school were poorly rated. A subsequent survey showed improved teacher attitudes, thanks to a monthly newspaper, parent hotline, web page, and other changes. (Contains…

Argues that teachers need a comprehensible and flexible view of what counts as a written text in the larger world outside the classroom. Discusses two cases that demonstrate working with middle schoolers and their writing. Discusses the kind of knowledge about written text that teachers of writing need, and offers recommendations for teacher…

Describes the Cultural Inquiry Process, a way to broaden teachers' understandings of culturally diverse students and to maximize these students' success, by combining classroom inquiry and principles of educational anthropology. Describes its rationale, experiences using the Cultural Inquiry Process, and how to make the process work. (EV)

This study reports the development of a student computer attitude survey that highlighted gender differences in computer attitudes of middle and high school students. Examines confidence, perception of computers as male domain, positive teacher attitudes, negative teacher attitudes, and perceived usefulness of computers. The computer attitude…

The present overrepresentation of African American males in the U.S. justice system, combined with racial disproportionality on measures of school discipline, provide compelling reasons for continued scrutiny of connections between the two areas. Although previous studies have revealed powerful insights about the salience of culture, particularly…

Beginning teachers are often given teaching assignments that would challenge even the most skillful veteran teachers. Such assignments can take several forms: teaching in a subject area for which the teacher is not certified; having too many class preparations; "floating" from classroom to classroom; working with low-ability, unmotivated, or…

This research reports on prospective middle school teachers' perceptions of a "best mathematics class" during their involvement in an inquiry-designed mathematics content course. Grounded in the prestigious Glenn Commission report (U.S. Department of Education, 2000), the study examined the prospective teachers' perceptions of effective…

Problem-based learning (PBL) has been used in medical education and has been extended to the preparation of educational administrators. PBL should improve education at the elementary and secondary levels because it can be a vehicle for integrating curriculum, constructing alternative assessments, accommodating instruction for longer blocks of…

Representing a work in progress, this paper presents the theoretical framework for a longitudinal case study involving the implementation of cooperative learning strategies in an ethnically diverse urban middle school. The effects that cooperative learning has on the curriculum as perceived by teachers are also to be examined during the 3-year…

A 1991 survey of Kansas earth science teachers provides findings concerning earth science students, earth science teachers, and some current practices in earth science instruction. Generally students take earth science in seventh, eighth, or ninth grade. About two-thirds of the students taking earth science do so at the ninth grade level. The…